Hyde5: Bill Polian with encouraging news for Dolphins line hopes

March 6, 2014|Dave Hyde

This morning's Hyde5:

1. As general manager for Indianapolis, Bill Polian conducted a study of the draft and free agency, position by position, to determine the “hit and miss” rate by position. Overall, he found both to be a 50-50 proposition for “hit” rates, which tempers the idea of a known commodity in free agency.

The highest success rate in free agency? Offensive linemen. Polian didn’t hit the free-agent market hard as a GM, viewing it as a tough of overspending on castaways. But he did believe offensive linemen could be found.

“If you have a lot of spots to fill, and Miami is the one example, it’s virtually impossible to fill them with rookies and make those rookies play cohesively enough to play as a functioning offensive line,’’ Polian said. “So free agency is a good place to go an get specific veteran players who fit your parameters and are resaona ble cost. Reasonable is in the eye of the beholder.”

He added: “You’re almost forced, if you have a lot of holes on the offensive line, to do it through free agency. So your choices are: Do they fit (your system)? Are they good people? Do they have longevity? Those are the decisions you have to make. And they’re not easy ones.

“Offensive linemen tend to have longevity. You can find pretty good buys on the offensive line.”

2. Keith Olbermann made some good points to hear about the lording up of LeBron's 61-point night. But the primary idea that he missed in his desire to be snarky was this: The magic of LeBron is how he can turn a nothing, Monday-night game against lowly Charlotte into a memorable night. Everyone says nothing matters until the playoffs in the big picture. And that's true. But that game showed the small picture can be a lot of fun, too.

3. The East is there for the Heat to take now. With Indiana losing Tuesday to Golden State and Wednesday at Charlotte, Indiana and the Heat are tied in the loss column. The Heat don't think the homecourt advantage is a great advantage. But considering how much talk and energy Indiana has put into winning the East, it's hard to see how the Pacers wouldn't take it as a slap to their psyche.

4. Why not just get rid of the extra point? Who cares? But if keep a touchdown to six points (rather than seven with the extra point), the question becomes if you reduce a field goal to two points?

5. I'll be following Tiger today at Doral. I hear Steve Martin singing on stage at the absurdity of his good fortune: "I get paid for doing this."